Adding carbon to steel

[Theon]

I have a friend that told me you can add carbon to steel by folding it and adding rice paper or even thin cardboard between the steel as its folded. Is this true? I remember reading something about it in research of Japanese sword smithing but I don't see how that would work.

 

[Willie71]

Just buy the right steel and its easy. You will spend way more time and money on adding carbon than you will spend on a bar of known steel.

http://newjerseysteelbaron.com/shop/product-category/high-carbon-steel/

 

[Theon]

Im not planning on making the high carbon steel I was more interested in can it be done that way. I like learning as much as possible about a subject. I plan on buying my steel for the foreseeable future but I also want to learn how it was done historically as well.

 

[Salem Straub]

Your friend sounds typically misinformed. What he's describing (inaccurately) is part of the folding process, which homogenizes the steel.
The Japanese had a process for adding carbon to low or medium carbon steel or iron, called "oroshigane." It consists of cooking the steel for a long time deep in a charcoal fire, with the carbon from the charcoal carburizing the steel.

 

[A C Richards]

Short answer NO. Get the book, The Craft of the Japanese Sword, It explains the process in detail of how they determine carbon content and how they add or remove carbon. Normally they start with the right content for the task at hand and go from there.

 

[Theon]

Thank you for the information and the book title I will have to hunt that one down. Thanks guys